Small powered vehicles are known for grooming sand surfaces such as those found in the bunkers of golf courses. These vehicles typically have three ground engaging wheels arranged in a tricycle configuration comprising a steerable front wheel and two rear wheels. An operator sits on a seat on the vehicle and is able to drive and steer the vehicle using a steering wheel adjacent the seat. The steering wheel is operably connected to the steerable front wheel of the vehicle. The SAND PRO® brand of bunker rakes manufactured and sold by The Toro Company, the assignee of this invention, is a well known line of sand grooming vehicles of this type.
A trailing rake is towed behind sand grooming vehicles of this type to engage and smooth the sand. Traditionally, such rakes have included a plurality of independently movable rake sections with each rake section having a plurality of rigid teeth. The rake teeth engage and groom the sand as the rake is pulled over the sand by the vehicle and the rake teeth pass through the sand. In some rakes, the rake teeth comprise spring teeth rather than rigid teeth for providing a smoother finish on the sand.
In addition to grooming a sand surface, such vehicles and rakes are also used to groom and smooth other surfaces comprised of loose granular material. For example, such vehicles and rakes are also used to groom the loose dirt forming the infields of baseball diamonds. Thus, such vehicles and rakes are not used exclusively for grooming sand, but can also groom surfaces made of other loose granular material.
In addition to trailing rakes, front bulldozer blades have previously been attached to the front of such sand grooming vehicles for pushing or grading sand ahead of the vehicle. Such blades are often used after rain or other weather has caused the distribution of the sand in the bunker to shift. After this happens, it is not enough to simply groom and smooth the sand using the trailing rake. Instead, the sand is desirably redistributed within the bunker before the sand grooming operation. A bulldozer blade attached to the front of the vehicle is used to accomplish such redistribution.
However, known bulldozer blades for sand grooming vehicles present various problems. They are not easy to install or remove from the vehicle. As a consequence, they are simply generally left on the vehicle. When in place on the vehicle but not in use, they are in the way and make the vehicle somewhat more difficult to steer.
Another problem with known bulldozer blades on sand grooming vehicles is that they are prone to catching on the edges of the bunkers when the vehicle is being driven along one of the bunker edges. Since many bunkers on golf courses have highly curved and contoured edges, the problem of steering along a bunker edge with a front bulldozer blade attached to the vehicle frame is a difficult one. Without constant attention and/or a highly skilled operator, it is easy to catch the blade on the bunker edge any number of times. Each time this happens, the turf adjacent the bunker edge can be damaged. As a result, this limits how close to the bunker edge a vehicle with a front mounted bulldozer blade can be driven, which is a disadvantage.
In addition, known bulldozer blades of this type are normally fixed with respect to the vehicle frame though they can be raised and lowered by the operator to adjust their grading or blading effectiveness. Again, however, this requires a fair amount of attention and skill on the part of the operator. It is easy when using such a blade to dig too deeply into the sand surface and begin to push too much sand. The operator must continually monitor the blade and raise and lower the blade as the vehicle drives forwardly to prevent the blade from pushing too much sand. This is a difficult operation for many operators to accomplish regardless of whether the blade is manually or hydraulically raised and lowered.